On the Importance of Rest Days
By Sue Joyner
Rest days. You either love them or you hate them, but rest days are vital to incorporate into training. While the frequency of rest days can vary from person to person based on age, experience, and type of training, they should still be integrated into each person's training to some capacity. Why are rest days so important?
Muscles need time to recover
As we train our bodies are undergoing stress which causes small tears in our muscles. Our bodies need time to repair the damage which is why a rest day is so important. If we aren’t giving our muscles the time off to rebuild and restore, then we just continue to break down already broken down muscle. This will result in a lack of strength gain and a body more susceptible to injury.
Helps with injury prevention
Stress fractures are a common injury in running often caused by repetitive force or overuse. This combined with poor nutrition can significantly increase the risk of stress fractures and other injuries. Taking a rest day helps decrease the chance of injuries because it gives our bones time to repair and rebuild the damage as well as our ligaments, tendons and joints. This will result in stronger bones that will better withstand the high impact of running.
Our minds need rest too
Keeping a consistent running schedule takes time, preparation, dedication, and discipline. While these are healthy habits to instill in our lives, it’s important to schedule time to give our minds a rest. When we prepare a rest day, we can better enjoy the break, allowing our mind to rest or engage in other activities that bring us joy. This helps us better appreciate the days we do train, as well as helps prevent burnout.
Improves quality of training and performance
Taking time to rest, allowing our bodies to recover, and giving our mind a break, allows us to press restart when we get back to our training. Our bodies will be able to train harder and perform better because we have given our bodies the necessary time to repair and prepare. Try running your next long run on fresh legs. Be intentional with rest before your next race. It’s amazing how much stronger and faster you’ll feel.
Time for other things
Running can easily become an addictive sport. Once we race our first race, experience our first ‘runner’s high’, or set a new PR, we often come running back for more. However, this can cause us to neglect other areas of our lives. Family, friends, nutrition, self-care, and rest time are often the first to be neglected. Intentionally scheduling days to rest allow us to give these important parts of our lives more attention and energy. While physical health is extremely important, leading a “Healthy Lifestyle” means we are taking care of our physical, mental, and emotional health. Make time for other things.
The Benefits of Cross Training
By Sue Joyner
It’s a common misconception that in order to become a great runner you have to run all the time. While it is true that you have to run to get faster, it’s also true that more running isn’t always better. Cross training is helpful with injury prevention, injury rehabilitation, cardiovascular health, muscular balance, preventing burnout, and allowing your joints to rest from the high impact of running.
Cross training in its simplest form is anything BUT running. This often looks like cycling, swimming, body weight workouts, exercises with bands, lifting weights or yoga. It's extremely important to incorporate cross training into your weekly routine. This could look like running 3-5 days a week, and having 1-3 days specifically for cross training. The running (or not running) goals you have will dictate the best kind of cross training for you. If you have a goal to run a half marathon in 10 weeks, a great way to incorporate cross training would be to resistance training or any non-weight bearing cardio 1-3x a week.
If you aren’t training for anything specific and run because it serves as free therapy, then get creative with your cross training and try some new ways to exercise! Kickboxing, Ju-Jitzu, spin class, a hip-hop dance class, anything that sparks your interest and helps you break a sweat.
Cross training is a great way to give your body a break from running, enhance your running performance, and keep you interested in leading an active lifestyle. Try committing to 4-8 weeks of cross training a few days a week and see for yourself what it can do!
2021, here we come! New Year's Resolutions
By Sue Joyner
The New Year is almost here, and I think it’s safe to say we are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of 2021. Naturally, many of us are scoping out the coming year, looking to set new goals that help us set healthier habits and challenge us. If I could recommend one piece of advice when setting goals for 2021, it would be to start small. If you feel like this past year dragged you through the mud, and any good habit you once had is gone, do not fear. Go clean that mud off your pretty face, and start fresh. By setting small, achievable goals it’s easier to build on those goals, stay motivated, and eventually implement it into your daily lifestyle.
For those who are unmotivated, hate exercise, or claim to not have time: start with preparation. Look at the week ahead and pick 2-3 days that week that you can fit a 10-20 minute walk (or whatever method of exercise you enjoy) with your dogs, babies or just you. It doesn’t have to be strenuous or miserable, just get moving. After 3 or 4 weeks of consistently doing this, re-evaluate and ask yourself, ‘is this something I enjoy? Does this make me feel better physically, mentally or emotionally?’ If you answer yes, keep going. See if you can add another day of exercise to your weekly routine or add an extra 5 minutes to your current sessions. Start simple, and prove to yourself you can be consistent. Then you can build on frequency, duration, and intensity over time.
For those who have perfected consistency but are feeling burnt out or bored: let’s get creative. If you’re a treadmill runner, try hitting the pavement. If you’re a greenway runner, try taking a jog through the historic/downtown area of Cleveland, TN. If you’re bored of your normal route around Cleveland, take it to the trails! Or maybe you’ve tried all of the above and running has become more of a chore than something you enjoy. Try a different way of exercising other than running. Cycling, swimming, yoga, At-home workouts, or strength training, there is always more to learn and challenge your body!
For my adventure seekers and competitive junkies: this year may look a little different than you are used to. Unfortunately, similarly to 2020, this new year of 2021 can’t promise any more certainty than the year past. You’ve proven yourself to be strong and this is just another thing to muscle through. So when I suggest to set smaller goals I mean to keep your dreams big, but set goals that are realistic for the time we are living through right now. That may look much different than what you are used to but this is a season to be adaptable. Find new ways to entertain and challenge yourself physically. If you have your eye on a race, go for it! But remember to be adaptable if our current circumstances change your plans.
With the start of a New Year, there is always a subconscious pressure to implement new habits into your life. I hope to encourage you that you can start a new habit, goal, or change at any point in the year. Take the time to decipher what is achievable for this season of your life, set a goal, and show up and give it your best effort. You’ve totally got this year! Stay positive, take care of yourself, and enjoy the little things! Happy New Year!
Tips to Keep Running Fun
By Brittany Katz
Let’s be honest: sometimes running can get boring. At the same time each day, you grab your same outfit, same shoes, and jog the same route at roughly the same pace. The weather is generally the same each day, and you find yourself listening to the same playlist. No wonder runners get bored! If you aren’t switching it up, you probably have stopped seeing progress physically as well. Changing up your runs will not only get you excited about working out again, but will help kick start your physical progress. If you’re looking for some fun, interesting ways to change it up on your runs, try these:
1. Intervals. Intervals are periods of running hard and fast alternating with periods of recovery. You can run the same distance and get a lot harder of a workout in by simply adding intervals! If you want to be more structured with your intervals, set your Garmin to an interval workout. Start with 30 seconds hard / 1 minutes recovery. If you don’t want to mess with technology, just choose landmarks on your run. For example, run hard from the stop sign to the tree, then recover to the driveway up ahead. If possible, keep running during your rest intervals, no matter how slowly. You’ll burn more calories by adding intervals to a run, as well as work those fasttwitch muscles that aren’t used as often during long, slow distance
Check out the trails at Johnston Woods in McDonald, TN.
2. Change up the route. If you always run out your front door and do the neighborhood clockwise, try it counterclockwise. If you always start at Greenway Park and run the Greenway north, head south instead. If you’ve never done trails, check out Johnston Woods. Changing up your route will get you out of your routine and change the elevation and scenery.
3. Time vs. Distance. If you usually run for time (for example, 30 minutes, or 1 hour) try to run for distance and forget your pace. If you usually run for distance (We see you jogging around the parking lot to get 3 miles exactly!) forget the distance and just run for time! This will challenge you to listen to your body more than your watch.
4. Don’t run. Wait, I thought this was advice for keeping running fun? It is! If it’s becoming a drag to force yourself out the door to run, take a cue from your body and don’t push it. Change up your workout. Walk the dog, do a yoga video, lift weights, or spend time stretching. We all need a break, and running shouldn’t become a chore. Take a few days off and you’ll probably be itching to get out and run again in no time!
Sick of running? Don’t force it! Try something different, like yoga.